"Welcome back, Sect Master Zhong."

Somewhere in Snowfall City, the Divine Sword Sect's disciples and sect elder greeted Zhong Chao Huang, who'd just returned from a few missions that had been given to him by Lord Xie.

"I apologize for returning so much later than I said, as I had run into a few unexpected situations." Elder Zhong said to them.

"There's no need to apologize to us, Sect Master. You were busy under His Majesty's commands, after all."

One of the Sect Elders poured tea for him as he sat down.

"Mmm" Elder Zhong nodded after tasting the flavorful tea.

"By the way, our first match for the regional tournament should be coming up tomorrow. Who's our opponent? It should already have been announced by now."

"Uhh"

The Sect Elders and Disciples exchanged worried looks with each other.

"What's the matter?" Elder Zhong raised an eyebrow in puzzlement.

Because Elder Zhong had been away this entire time, he was unaware of the situation with Hong Yu'er and the Fang Zhelan.

"Our match tomorrow is the Profound Blossom Sect" said one of the Sect Elders.

"The Profound Blossom Sect?!" Elder Zhong nearly spat the tea in his mouth after hearing their name.

"They actually managed to last this long?! Unbelievable!" Elder Zhong said with a surprised expression.

"Sect Master, you may not know this since you have been away this entire time, but the Profound Blossom Sect has two monsters at the Earth Spirit Realm, and one of them is even in the seventh level whilst we only have three and the highest one is at the third level..."

"What?! Seventh level Earth Spirit Realm?!" Elder Zhong's eyes widened with shock.

"It's some young lady named Fang Zhelan. However, that's not even the worst part. Even if we somehow manage to defeat her and the Profound Blossom Sect, we will have to deal with the Azure Cloud Sect..."

"The Azure Cloud Sect also managed to last this long? Although they are definitely better than the Profound Blossom Sect in terms of position, they shouldn't have the capabilities to enter the semifinals! What happened to the other Elite Sects? Did they all decide to not participate in this year's regional tournament?" Elder Zhong was gobsmacked by the current situation of the regional tournament, as he truly did not expect all of the Elite Sects to lose to these low-ranking sects.

"No, they were beaten fair and square by them. In fact,